Log for US Teams Meeting on June 2nd, 2009

20:03 < pleia2> okies, here is our agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/USTeams/Meetings
20:04 < pleia2> so... our planet is still ugly :)
20:05 < MTecknology> I have an idea...
20:05 < MTecknology> If I created a planet module for Drupal, would you guys want to use it?
20:05 < pleia2> MTecknology: drupal 5.x?
20:05 < MTecknology> I dev in 6.x and back port to 5.x
20:06 < pleia2> how soon could you have it?
20:06 < MTecknology> umm... considering current projects, I'd need some help
20:06 < pleia2> hm, doubtful then, we really want to get things looking spiffy and move on, the planet we have running now on canonical servers is fine aside from how it looks
20:06 < MTecknology> but I can sketch up some docs to detail everything for review by the end of the week.
20:07 < dantalizing> pleia2: so what is the planet supposed to look like?
20:07 < pleia2> dantalizing: link to our resources, link to feeds that area ctually on it
20:07 < MTecknology> k - The idea would have been that it would function the exact same, but it would utilize the drupal theme you're using and be site.com/planet instead of a whole new site
20:08 < pleia2> the core look of it is ok, the links are just all wrong
20:08 < MTecknology> Each user in an LP team would be able to have access to add their own feed w/o the bzr stuff too
20:08 < pleia2> tabs are probably wrong
20:08 < pleia2> (not just links)
20:09 < pleia2> MTecknology: we're not using openid
20:09 < pleia2> so it's not hooked into LP in any way
20:09 < dantalizing> so pleia2 the color scheme is ok?
20:09 < pleia2> MTecknology: I think the planet plugin is a fine idea, but I wouldn't work on it for us, I think we've pretty much decided we're just going to use what we have and move on
20:09 < pleia2> dantalizing: yeah
20:10 < dantalizing> i can fix links
20:10 < dantalizing> i cant put two colors together
20:10 < dantalizing> but i can a href
20:10 < MTecknology> alrighty. It was a thought I've been wanting to do for a while - just never really had the motivation to work on it
20:10 < pleia2> dantalizing: hehe, ok
20:11 < pleia2> I'll have a look at the code and see what I need to give you to have a look
20:11 < dantalizing> the .tmpl is all i need iirc
20:11 < pleia2> ok cool, that's easy enough
20:12 < pleia2> I'll grab those from the server and email them over
20:12 < dantalizing> k ...
20:12 < pleia2> next... I want more planet feeds
20:13 < dantalizing> pleia2: approved teams only, right?
20:13 < dantalizing> or no?
20:13 < pleia2> the initial call to the list wasn't very successful, so I think I'm going to go wander around the whole country for team sites and see what folks are up to, contact them if they have feeds that would be good to add
20:13 < pleia2> nah, we're adding anyone
20:14 < MTecknology> I'd like to add mine eventually
20:14 < MTecknology> once I create the planet module for my site :P
20:14 < pleia2> MTecknology: this is for news feeds, not planet feeds
20:14 < pleia2> team news
20:15 < pleia2> our planet is a quick glimpse into what teams in the US are working on
20:15 < MTecknology> That's what I'm going to use mine for - but I'm gonna be quiet for now
20:15 < dantalizing> pleia2: were you able to make the locoteams meeting today?
20:16 < pleia2> dantalizing: nope, too busy at work :(
20:16 < dantalizing> part of the discussion was how ot get more teams to share....
20:16 < dantalizing> part of my issue with the whole thing i
20:16 < dantalizing> is that we do team reports, fridge, planet, websites, etc
20:17 < dantalizing> we need to find a way to minimize the number of places we have to enter data
20:17 < dantalizing> at a global level they're pushing fridge for team news
20:17 < dantalizing> so how do we fit in with that?
20:18 < dantalizing> i'm not that familiar with fridge
20:18 < pleia2> me neither
20:18 < pleia2> I really like our planet though
20:18 < dantalizing> me too
20:18 < pleia2> since so many of us already publish our own rss feeds about events
20:18 < dantalizing> i dont see any rss coming out of fridge
20:19 < dantalizing> maybe i'm missing it
20:19 < pleia2> yeah, fridge has an rss feed
20:19 < dantalizing> "an"?
20:19 < pleia2> hmm, what did you mean by "rss coming out of fridge?
20:20 < dantalizing> well we all seem to want content
20:20 < dantalizing> i'd rather aggregate it out of -us
20:20 < dantalizing> or, failing that, into -us
20:20  * pleia2 nods
20:21 < pleia2> I think the priority for most teams is telling their other team mates what is going on, sharing photos and notes from their own events from each other
20:21 < pleia2> team reports, telling the fridge, all that is extra work that we tend not to do
20:21 < dantalizing> agreed
20:21 < dantalizing> and its not likely to get more active until its easier
20:22 < pleia2> if the fridge aggregated team feeds that we already have, like our planet, it would be pretty awesome
20:22 < dantalizing> effie is checking on this
20:22 < pleia2> cool
20:22 < pleia2> I'll give him a link to our planet to show off the good-ideaness of it :)
20:22 < r2d2rogers> or even just categories of the team's feeds...
20:22 < r2d2rogers> taged with news or fridge?
20:22 < r2d2rogers> tagged even
20:23 < pleia2> yeah, perhaps
20:23 < r2d2rogers> to address any objections about non news items?
20:23 < rihanh1> as a small (and new) team spokesperson, i'm just more comfortable doing a wiki post than something official on the fridge. we don't have a lot to say yet
20:23 < dantalizing> rihanh1: lies!
20:23 < rihanh1> just adding that to the fray
20:24 < dantalizing> rihanh1: all of it is good news that should be shared
20:24 < rihanh1> ha. well if you put it that way.
20:24 < pleia2> rihanh1: I think a lot of people feel the same way :)
20:25 < pleia2> and honestly, getting things on the fridge sometimes isn't the easiest thing, maybe they need more staff? but I see people getting discouraged, mailing the news team list multipletimes...
20:25 < dantalizing> yes
20:26 < pleia2> and it took me like 4 days to find the "submit story" button ;)
20:26 < pleia2> (just kidding, I gave up and asked johnc4510)
20:26 < pleia2> you have to click the little tiny "about" link
20:26 < pleia2> dantalizing: do you know where things ended up with the fridge redesign?
20:27 < dantalizing> pleia2: i do not
20:27  * pleia2 recalled one with a big submit news button, liked a lot
20:27 < dantalizing> boredandblogging has the info
20:27 < dantalizing> but you know how he is
20:27 < pleia2> cool, good to know
20:27 < pleia2> haha
20:27 < pleia2> alright, I think that's it for planet for now
20:28 < pleia2> upcoming articles... both john and I said we'd do articles, I've got a draft of mine done
20:28 < pleia2> but I don't know how to post an article, so that's why I was wondering if he was back
20:29 < rihanh1> another 2 cents (and something i could help with later in the month) it would be great to have a 'checklist' for what, where and how to do the various postings for locos - something to add to the getting started page.
20:29 < dantalizing> good idea rihanh1
20:29 < pleia2> rihanh1: something like this? https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/Administriva
20:29 < dantalizing> when will you add that ? ;)
20:29 < pleia2> but probably expanded to add other resources outside the loco too
20:30 < pleia2> (team reports? fridge?)
20:30 < rihanh1> i'll look into a bit and send something later this month then. as soon as we can - we've been a bit slogged this month
20:30 < pleia2> awesome :)
20:32 < rihanh1> ha! very much like that - thanks Pleia. =)
20:32 < pleia2> I made that for totally selfish reasons, I kept forgetting all the things I needed to do
20:32 < pleia2> hehe
20:32 < dantalizing> we stole pleia2's page for fl too :)
20:33 < dantalizing> so its probably a good idea to generalize it, as rihanh1 suggested
20:33 < rihanh1> ha - proof. sounds useful
20:33  * pleia2 nods
20:34  * pleia2 makes some notes
20:34 < pleia2> alright
20:34 < pleia2> last thing on the agenda was the proposed -us cluster for hosting
20:35 < pleia2> boredandblogging added it:
20:35 < pleia2> 19:17:32 <boredandblogging> i just want to see if there is any more interest in the US cluster
20:35 < pleia2> 19:17:44 <boredandblogging> specifically anyone want to run with it
20:35 < pleia2> 19:18:41 <boredandblogging> feedback was good, but not exactly enthusiastic
20:35 < pleia2> 19:18:47 <boredandblogging> so not sure what the others feel
20:35 < pleia2> (he couldn't make it to the meeting)
20:36 < pleia2> I think i'm wondering the same
20:36 < dantalizing> i think its something that would help the newer teams
20:36 < MTecknology> I could probably donate a server - long as the owner never finds out :P
20:37 < rihanh1> we have a pretty good deal for our first year, we don't mind so much, but for continuity (the hit by a bus theory) it might be good to have a more general 'home' for our site. not a deal breaker for us.
20:37 < pleia2> pennsylvania was lucky enough to get a local company to sponsor our hosting
20:38 < rihanh1> guest36926 wants to know a bit more - where is the hardware, etc? sounds like a big job.
20:39 < rihanh1> a bit beyond volunteer level?
20:39 < dantalizing> none of it is set yet
20:39 < dantalizing> we need to *get* hardware, bandwidth, etc
20:39 < dantalizing> set it up for multiplayer loco action
20:39 < rihanh1> yeah, it sounds like a great idea but a BIG job.
20:39 < dantalizing> manage it
20:40 < pleia2> rihanh1: are you on the mailing list?
20:40 < pleia2> boredandblogging did a big brain dump of thoughts last month
20:40 < rihanh1> yeah, i saw it, read a snippit. guest didn't
20:40 < rihanh1> guest is having tech difficulties. haha
20:41 < pleia2> hehe
20:41 < pleia2> but yeha, we don't have details yet
20:41 < dantalizing> i'd like to register my interest, but i dont have bandwidth atm
20:41 < pleia2> essentially we want to gauge interest - is it worth looking into all of this? do people have interest?
20:42 < dantalizing> i dot
20:42 < dantalizing> *do
20:42 < rihanh1> yeah, i'd say i'd LOVE to take advantage of it, but its beyond my capacity to give to.
20:42 < rihanh1> we don't mind hosting our own until we grow.
20:42 < pleia2> I think what we'd try to do would be to offer it for free
20:43 < pleia2> have it paid for by a generous company or something
20:43 < rihanh1> if we threw in some documentation, site templates/CMS, etc it might make team launches easier.
20:43  * pleia2 nods
20:44 < pleia2> it is a big job volunteer wise though, canonical's hosting is pretty locked down and I can sympathize with why
20:44 < rihanh1> sounds like work for a committee - let's create a team. lol
20:44 < rihanh1> better yet, is there an existing team we can lob to? <smirk>
20:45 < dantalizing> we're lobbing to ourselves
20:45 < dantalizing> unless we wanna hookup with -eu
20:45 < dantalizing> not a big fan of that idea
20:46 < pleia2> nor am I
20:46 < pleia2> so we'd have to cultivate our own team of sysadmins
20:47 < dantalizing> i volunteer pleia2
20:47 < pleia2> lol, noooo
20:49 < dantalizing> soo....
20:49 < pleia2> I am not sure we have the people-power to pull off such a thing
20:50 < dantalizing> not atm
20:50 < dantalizing> i agree
20:50 < pleia2> maybe once we get some more teams going strong :)
20:50 < rihanh1> yeah, sounds like a bit much for now. definately something for the great ideas when list
20:52 < dantalizing> one more note ... if you're loco is creating posters, flyers, website buttons, whatever, be sure to add them to spreadubuntu if you can
20:53 < rihanh1> spreadbuntu?
20:53 < pleia2> yeah, has anyone posted to the list lately about that?
20:53 < Flannel> http://spreadubuntu.neomenlo.org/
20:53 < rihanh1> ty
20:53 < pleia2> would be good to remind people
20:53 < dantalizing> yes
20:54 < dantalizing> paolo from -it has been blogging about it on the planet
20:54 < dantalizing> he had a session at uds
20:54 < dantalizing> i think we all know we should do it
20:54 < dantalizing> we just dont
20:54 < dantalizing> -fl is guilty
20:54 < dantalizing> i've only added 2 or 3 things
20:55 < dantalizing> gonna get someone to upload all our stuff
20:55 < rihanh1> on that topic, if you do create this type of content, does it need to be approved as well?
20:56 < Flannel> rihanh1: Approved by whom?
20:57 < rihanh1> canonical - in the same way we had our URL and local logo approved? or it okay so long as we use only preapproved bits in the creation?
20:57 < rihanh1> just learning the rules - thanks
20:58 < dantalizing> canonical is only interested in your use of the trademark
20:58 < dantalizing> so, if you use 'ubuntu' or the logo outside of the trademark policies, they'd probably have an issue
20:58 < dantalizing> otherwise, i've never seen them take an interest
20:58 < rihanh1> that was my thought, good to have it validated. thanks.
20:59 < pleia2> -us-pa doesn't add stuff either, but lately we've mostly just been using free system76 fliers for events anyway
21:00 < dantalizing> we have legacy stuff that we need to add
21:00 < dantalizing> cd covers, banners, etc
21:01  * pleia2 volunteers dantalizing to send reminder about spreadubuntu resources to -us
21:02 < MTecknology> If you're calling it murder, I'd use killall -9 :P
21:02 < MTecknology> wrong chan - I'll joke about this later, sorry
21:02 < dantalizing> noted pleia2
21:02 < pleia2> :)
21:02 < pleia2> did we have anything else to talk about?
21:02 < dantalizing> not me
21:03 < pleia2> oh, I think I'm going to do another article on documenting things
21:03 < pleia2> I'm trying to help out this one team that kicks and screams when I ask them to document things
21:03 < pleia2> "we spend our time DOING! not documenting!"
21:03 < dantalizing> meh .. no approval for them
21:03 < pleia2> and no growth either
21:03 < rihanh1> try adjusting their code later. meh
21:04 < pleia2> in the course of the discussion in their channel two active channel participants piped up and said they never had a clue what the team was doing
21:04 < pleia2> I can't imagine this is the only team with this problem, and they dont' even realize it
21:04 < rihanh1> that's a tough one - we're still looking for the magic formula.
21:05 < dantalizing> magic formula rihanh1 ?
21:06 < rihanh1> .2(wiki) + .2(website) + .18(forums) + .22(mail list) + .12(IRC and planet) .... lol
21:06 < dantalizing> oh
21:06 < pleia2> lol
21:06 < rihanh1> we're just trying to find what works, we're still very new and don't really know each other yet. its a much more diverse crowd than we were expecting - a LOT of new users. wow.
21:07 < dantalizing> rihanh1: your formula is missing .5(UWN)
21:07 < rihanh1> i expected to be 'outgeeked' at the start and found we were actually closer to the super users.
21:07 < dantalizing> and apparently .5(Fridge)
21:07 < rihanh1> uwn? i was thinking .5 time mgmt
21:07 < rihanh1> haha
21:07 < pleia2> it can be frustrating before you have a routine down - we had 3 events planned once, all of us running around updating resources and doing things
21:07 < rihanh1> how about - .2(life)
21:07 < rihanh1> heh
21:08 < pleia2> someone joins the channel and says "hey, your wiki isn't updated, is this team dead?"
21:08 < dantalizing> .02
21:08 < pleia2> gaah, forgot to update wiki! x_x
21:08 < rihanh1> more like, what's a wiki? really green team. lol
21:09 < pleia2> hehe, just an example of how different people like different resources better
21:09 < pleia2> so we have to update all of them, and if we miss one we lost 1, 2... how many people?
21:09 < rihanh1> exactly. hard to balance.
21:09 < dantalizing> you guys have people that read the wiki?
21:09 < pleia2> your formula is pretty accurate though, I'd say :)
21:09 < dantalizing> we basically use the wiki just for team organization
21:09 < rihanh1> no, we just slave on it and PRAY one person sees it
21:10 < dantalizing> all our communication is email,web,blgs
21:10 < pleia2> dantalizing: we have an Events section that people sometimes click on
21:10 < pleia2> I think they only click on it when it's not updated
21:10 < pleia2> heheh
21:10 < dantalizing> lol
21:10 < rihanh1> yeah, murphy's law strikes. chuckle, snort
21:11 < pleia2> :)
21:14 < pleia2> oh!
21:14  * pleia2 gets out hammer and finishes meeting for real
21:14 < pleia2> thanks for coming everyone :)
21:14 < pleia2> lots of good ideas!